Sunday, March 20, 2016

Why Nigerians Can’t Pronounce “Nigeria” Correctly

The only Nigerians who pronounce the name of their
country "correctly" are foreign-born Nigerians—or Nigerians who were socialized
outside their country, or whose exposure and education cause them to be guarded
and self-conscious about their pronunciation. It was a non-Nigerian who first
called my attention to this over a decade ago.

The name “Nigeria,” as most people know, isn’t native
to the languages spoken by the people who populate the area; it’s an anglicized
Latin word that denotes blackness. It traces lexical descent from the Latin
“niger,” which means “black” or “dark,” and shares etymological affinities with
the obnoxiously negrophobic racial slur, “Nigger.”

The name emerged when British colonizers named the
longest river that courses through our country “River Niger.” Before British
colonizers called it River Niger, precolonial Nigerians called (and still call)
it by different names. For instance, Baatonu people in Kwara State (and Benin
Republic) call it “Kora,” Yoruba people call “Oya,” Hausa people call it
“Kwara,” Igbo people call it “Orimiri,” and so on.

When it came time to name the polity that British
colonizers cobbled together, they decided to name it “Niger area,” in honor of
River Niger. “Niger area” was later shortened to “Nigeria.” In essence, Nigeria
means “dark area.” With such a name, is it any wonder that constant, reliable
electricity has eluded Nigeria since independence? We are writhing under a
primal appellative curse!

Well, that was a joke! A country’s name has no bearing
on the incompetence of its leaders.

Seriously, though, the British people who imposed the
name “Nigeria” on us don’t pronounce it the way we do. In a March 31, 2013
article titled “More Words Nigerians Mispronounce,” I called attention to
the pervasive mispronunciation of “Nigeria.” I wrote:

“It is perhaps the biggest irony of our ‘nationhood’
that almost no Nigerian pronounces the name of our country ‘correctly.’ Last
year, I’d planned to write an article on the imperative to change Nigeria’s
name to something other than Nigeria, and part of the argument I wanted to
advance was that the name ‘Nigeria’ is so foreign to us that almost no Nigerian
pronounces it correctly. One of my readers brought this to my attention again
three weeks ago. He pointed out that even President Goodluck Jonathan doesn't
pronounce Nigeria correctly.

“Well, there are regional and ethnic variations in the
way ‘Nigeria’ is pronounced in Nigeria. While Hausa people pronounce Nigeria
‘naa-je-riya,’ the rest of the country pronounces it like ‘nan-ji-ria.’ Many
language groups in southern and central Nigeria that don’t have the ‘j’ sound
in their languages either pronounce it ‘nan-ye-ria’ or ‘nan-ge-ria.’ The
British people who imposed the name on us pronounce it ‘nai-jee-ree-a.’ So do
Americans and other native English speakers.”

NAI-JEE-REE-A. That’s how almost all non-Nigerians,
including non-native English speakers, call Nigeria. Why are Nigerians the only
people who don't "correctly" pronounce “Nigeria”? Well, before I answer that question, I
should point out that Nigerians aren’t the only people who mispronounce the
name of their country. Sierra Leoneans, for instance, pronounce Sierra Leone as
“Salone” instead of “see-era-lee-own.” (The name “Sierra Leone” isn’t native to
the people who live there; it’s derived from"Serra Leoa,"
which is Portuguese for “Lioness Mountains”). Most West Africans
pronounce it “sira-li-on.” When Sierra Leoneans, who were returnee ex-slaves
from the West, first immigrated to Yoruba land in the 1800s, Yoruba people
called them “Saros,” as a result of the elision of “Sierra Leone.” (Funmilayo
Ransome-Kuti, the mother of Fela, is descended from the “Saros.”)

Uneducated, rural white Americans (derogatorily called
“rednecks” here) also habitually elide the “a” in “America” to say something like
“Murica” or “Merica.”

But in today’s column I am concerned with the
mispronunciation of “Nigeria” by Nigerians. Why can’t Nigerians pronounce
Nigeria as “Nai-jee-ree-a”? I attribute this to the effect of the “intrusive N”
in Nigerian English pronunciation. So what is the “intrusive n” and how does it
manifest in Nigerian English pronunciation?

The
“Intrusive N” in Nigerian Pronunciation

I borrow the concept of the “intrusive N” from a
linguistic phenomenon in English called the “intrusive R,” which is defined as
the addition of the “r” sound (usually at the end) to words that don’t normally
have it. For example, some people
pronounce “law” as “lawr,” “saw” as “sawr,” “idea” as “idear,” etc.

A 2006 study found the “intrusive R” to be prevalent among
British newscasters. This is ironic because standard British pronunciation
(also called Received Pronunciation) is non-rhotic, that is, it does not
articulate the “r” in words unless the “r” appears in the beginning of a word,
so that “tuna” and “tuner” sound alike, and “lad” and “lard” almost sound
alike. Standard American English pronunciation (also called General American),
on the other hand, is rhotic, that is, the “r” sound is always pronounced
wherever it occurs in a word.

The intrusive N, to be sure, isn’t unique to Nigerian
English pronunciation. In a 1915 article in the Modern Language Notes journal titled “Intrusive Nasals in English,” Louise Pound noticed it among native
English speakers in England and America in words like “Anthens” instead of
“Athens”; “balland” instead of “ballad”; “cementary” instead of “cemetery”; “daintaive”
instead of “dative”; “incindent” instead of “incident”; “trinkling” instead of
“trickling”; and so on.

Among native English speakers, the “intrusive n”
occurs mostly in the speech of children, typically children between the ages of
2 and 9, who outgrow it as they get older. However, it has been fossilized in
such words as “messenger,” which was originally “messager” (from “message”);
“passenger,” which was originally “passager” (from “passage”); “harbinger,”
which was originally herbergere; and so on.

In Nigerian English pronunciation, the “intrusive n” occurs
chiefly in these words: attorney, covenant, expatiate, Nigeria, sigh, and
witch. There may be more, but these are the words that come to mind now.

“Attorney:”
It was one of my American friends who first called my attention to the way
Nigerians pronounce this word. She told me every Nigerian she has met (and she
has met quite a lot) pronounces “attorney” as “antoni,” especially if it
appears in the term “attorney general.” I am guilty of this, too, especially in
my unguarded moments. I don’t know what is responsible for the intrusive “n”
sound in the general Nigerian pronunciation of the word. It’s probably because
of the false attraction of the name “Anthony” and because we prefer “lawyer” to
“attorney” in our everyday speech and therefore hardly have a reason to observe
the absence of “n” in the word.

“Covenant:”
This everyday word among Nigerian Christians is often pronounced with an “n”
after the “o,” that is, as “con-ve-nant.” It’s properly pronounced
“co-ve-nant.” The intrusion of the “n” sound in the word may be due to the
influence of similar-sounding conversational words like “convenience,”
“convene,” “convener,” etc.

“Expatiate:”
There is usually an intrusive “n” sound when Nigerians pronounce this word. It
often sounds like “eks-pan-shi-yeyt.” But native speakers pronounce it like
“iks-pey-shee-eyt.” This is most probably because of the influence of words
like “expand” and “expansion.”

“Sigh:” Native speakers
pronounce it “sai,” but many Nigerians pronounce it “sain,” perhaps because the
word almost looks like “sign,” which is pronounced “sain.” I am also sometimes
guilty of mispronouncing “sigh” as “sain.”

“Witch:”
Nigerians pronounce this word as “winch,” especially in Pidgin English. Pastor David Oyedepo infamously slapped a
young girl on television for saying, “I am winch for Jeeezus!”

So next time a Nigerian calls Nigeria “nan-ji-ria”
instead of “nai-jee-ree-a” know that it is the “winch” of English pronunciation
that intruded into his nasal cavity and forced an unneeded “n” sound.

It is worth pointing out that the only linguistic group in
Nigeria that seems to be immune from the “intrusive n” phenomenon are the Afemai-
or Etsako-speaking people of northern Edo State (that is, in Auchi and
surrounding areas) who appear not to have the “n” sound in their native
language. That’s why when they speak English, they come across as suffering
from a nasal blockage; they talk like people who are breathing through their
mouth, instead of through their nose, which causes the “n” sound to be totally
subdued or eliminated. Listen to Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole if you
have never heard anyone from northern Edo State speak English.

Finally, it is interesting that while it is almost
impossible for the average Nigerian to say “nai-jee-ree-a,” Nigerians have no
trouble correctly pronouncing “Niger,” the root word of Nigeria. Almost no
Nigerian pronounces Niger as “Nanja”; we all say “nai-ja.” Similarly, no Nigerian
has trouble with “Naija,” the affectionate, colloquial short form of Nigeria,
which is particularly popular among young Nigerians on the Internet.

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About Me

Dr. Farooq Kperogi is a professor, journalist, newspaper columnist, author, and blogger based in Greater Atlanta, USA. He received his Ph.D. in communication from Georgia State University's Department of Communication where he taught journalism for 5 years and won the top Ph.D. student prize called the "Outstanding Academic Achievement in Graduate Studies Award." He earned his Master of Science degree in communication (with a minor in English) from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and won the Outstanding Master's Student in Communication Award.

He earned his B.A. in Mass Communication (with minors in English and Political Science) from Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria, where he won the Nigerian Television Authority Prize for the Best Graduating Student.

Dr. Kperogi worked as a reporter and news editor, as a researcher/speech writer at the (Nigerian) President's office, and as a journalism lecturer at Kaduna Polytechnic and Ahmadu Bello University before relocating to the United States.

He was the Managing Editor of the Atlanta Review of Journalism History, a refereed academic journal. He was also Associate Director of Research at Georgia State University's Center for International Media Education (CIME).

He is currently an Associate Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media at the School of Communication and Media, Kennesaw State University, Georgia's fastest-growing and third largest university. (Kennesaw is a suburb of Atlanta). He also writes two weekly newspaper columns: "Notes From Atlanta" in the Abuja-based DailyTrust on Saturday (formerly Weekly Trust) and "Politics of Grammar" in the DailyTrust on Sunday (formerly Sunday Trust).

In April 2014 Dr. Kperogi was honored as the Outstanding Alumnus of the University of Louisiana's Department of Communication. His research has also won international awards, such as the 2016 Top-Rated Research Paper Award at the 17th Symposium on Online Journalism at the University of Texas, Austin, USA.